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| PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT TECHNIQUES FOR TRANSPORTATION DECISION-MAKING |
ON-LINE SERVICES
What are on-line services?
On-line services provide communication through a computer network round-the-clock. They are a cross between a personal computer and a telephone line. With a computer modem and a subscription to an on-line service (similar to a cable television subscription), users are connected to the computers of other subscribers. At their own computers, they find information or participate in dialogues with other users. On-line services are the basis for an electronic bulletin board or E-mail.
On-line services enable people to give and get information when they want it. They afford people instantaneous access to information in documents or on bulletin boards. They allow people to post information that includes opinions, suggestions, or support for agency proposals or programs. People do not have to attend meetings to have their comments recorded. Alaska provided on-line services to public libraries for access to information including dates and times of meetings and the text of its State Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).
On-line services have the following components:
Why are they useful?
They enable agencies to post information about services or recent activities. The California State Government On-line Network includes California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) as one of its divisions so people can contact it for information. Washington’s Central Puget Sound Regional Transit Authority (RTA) has a home page directory leading to information about its history and organization, current news, newsletters, and public access network. The Institute for Transportation Research and Education, working with the North Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT), offers up-to-date information on highway construction projects and ferry and train schedules.
On-line services connect individuals to a wide-reaching network of agency information. Individuals and organizations pull up information files and print those that interest them. Users send instantaneous messages about the information to other on-line users, including the agency. They "surf" among options, with an enhanced sense of access and ability to communicate. Using on-line services to reach an agency home page concerning a proposed transportation project or planning process, a local resident may:
On-line services allow agencies to communicate and share information. The Institute of Transportation Engineers provides a listing of computerized bulletin boards with information and data on transportation topics. The Institute for Global Communication has several special-interest on-line services for its 9,500 members, ranging from health reform to marine habitat preservation to labor relations. In Texas, the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Houston) offers free on-line service. The National Trust for Historic Preservation has an on-line bulletin board, PRESERV LINK, with 100 members providing information.
On-line services are used at any stage in a long-range planning or project development process. The output is used in the same ways as output from public meetings or messages on an answering machine. The State of Alaska has a home page, as do the Alaska DOT and its Trans portation Planning Section. They regularly get comments from users.
Information sharing takes place at any time of day. Agencies post completed information about proposals or programs. Participants read the information and comment via the on-line network at a time of their choice. The on-line programs record and retain the information for agencies or others to read later.
On-line services are also used as a continuous communications medium during program or project development. On the Central Puget Sound RTA’s home page, users get agency history, project-specific information, and a list of topics discussed in further detail on later pages. The most recent newsletter is also available. When a copy of the latest issue appears, it may be printed from the screen.
Do they have special uses?
On-line services can focus on specific interests, such as the environment. The Washington State DOT offers a home page about bicycling that includes books, bicycling clubs, and cal endars of events. It also offers bicycling information from other States, as well as E-mail addresses for subscriptions to bicycle newsletters. Lastly, it lists the on-line links into special sections of the Internet Bicycle Archives.
On-line services give access to vast data bases. The library of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission/Association of Bay Area Governments in Oakland, California, links systems of data bases covering literature in over 400 subject areas, in 21 million volumes, in over 10,000 partici pating libraries. The library is also linked to on-line catalogs of materials in libraries at the Uni versity of California campuses, California State University, and Stanford University.
On-line services help develop a mailing list. The Washington State DOT offers a mailing list option. A user follows a home page instruction to insert his/her name into the program, thereby automatically joining the mailing list. (See Mailing Lists.)
Larger commercial services offer "conversation rooms" for discussion of specific subjects. In this use, an on-line service allows several subscribers to participate simultaneously in an electronic conversation.
For local people, these services offer an added degree of privacy. People who are uncomfortable speaking in front of groups can quietly compose a message or carefully word a concern. They also converse one-on-one with other concerned people. Records of their participation are kept only if the user identifies him/herself.
Agencies offer surveys or preference questionnaires via on-line services. A comment form encourages participants to review issues and write personal opinions. The Transportation Research Center at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas offers a comment form that can be transmitted by E-mail.
On-line services help reduce trips to meetings and agency offices. In a study of the potential municipal use of on-line services, the Claremont Colleges New Liberal Arts Clinic Program sug gested that such services could reduce vehicle trips by providing an alternative means of conduc ting business with government. Community people could use on-line services to participate in a two-way public discussion or to petition an elected official without arranging for child care or even worrying about proper attire.
Who participates? and how?
Computer-oriented people are likely to participate, but attracting local people with the greatest stake in a project or interest in a program is difficult if they are not computer literate. As computer use continues to increase in the workplace and on-line services become more common in public libraries and through organizations, these limitations become less pronounced.
Usage is limited to those who have access to a computer with connections to the service and the time and inclination to participate. Nominal computer skills are necessary, in addition to familiarity with a keyboard, but these skills are becoming more common. However, a computer purchase may be too expensive for many households. Public computers are not generally avail able, although some public and university libraries as well as offices of advocacy organizations and neighborhood centers now make on-line services available. In addition, some private ser vices are beginning to appear.
People with a computer and a modem use on-line services right from their home, whenever they want. A subscription to an on-line service helps users reach most sources of information. On-line services are also used from places of work, some public libraries, schools or universities, and offices of organizations.
Agencies must publicize the availability of on-line materials. As use of the Internet and on-line bulletin boards becomes more commonplace, agencies need to inform people that documents are available at on-line locations. Agencies publicize on-line connections via mail, public infor mation materials, advertisements, or telephone.
Who leads their use?
Any public agency can take advantage of existing commercial on-line services. These services connect an agency to its constituents and tap into larger data-sharing resources. The design and development of a successful on-line service begins by evaluating a public agency’s hardware and software capabilities and determining the information management objectives. Agencies may have to hire outside information management consultants to design, set up, and troubleshoot an on-line system. In spite of potential technological challenges, the Urban Transportation Monitor reports that as of January 1995 more than 28 electronic bulletin boards were related specifically to transportation.
What are the costs to an agency?
If an agency needs an outside contractor to design, set up, and monitor system operation, costs depend on the extent of help needed.
Costs to an agency are shared with individuals who use the services. Both the agency and the users pay monthly subscription fees. These fees are in the same general range as cable television fees and vary with usage, like pay-per-view services on television.
Once an on-line service is running, other costs to an agency are relatively low. Agencies incur costs to maintain public-access machines. Overall, on-line services are cost-efficient, because many similar requests for information are handled at once, or staff members are better positioned to understand and collect input from the public. On-line services are less costly ways to disseminate information than direct mail, although outreach is limited to those who can receive them.
How are on-line services organized?
On-line services include the following:
As a first step, agencies set a home page on local or regional on-line services. To take further advantage of the technology, they add ways for users to begin agency-to-user conversation forums. Initial actions include informing the public of these opportunities for communication. Once these services are integrated into an agency’s battery of techniques, they become a routine part of project planning or program development and a reliable method for gaining public input.
An agency fosters education and participation through greater information sharing. Active use of on-line services helps agencies better understand the public’s needs, monitor reactions, and improve public awareness. More than 150 cities and county governments and over 300 people from a wide range of States share information on a bulletin board, suggesting that govern ment agencies may learn about themselves through communication with each other and with their constituents.
On-line services give detailed information about agencies. The Minnesota DOT maintains an on-line telephone directory that lists departments and projects alphabetically. Important contact people are named by agency. This service effectively brings the DOT phone directory to the user’s living room, eliminating the sometimes difficult and frustrating effort of getting an agency operator to connect a caller with the right office and contact person.
On-line services give detailed information about construction projects and their impacts. The North Carolina DOT provides specific information about current road construction projects. From a statewide map, users choose projects in their area, obtaining details on project purpose, dates of construction, lane openings, a corridor map, affected side streets, frequencies of highway advisory radio channels, and construction-zone safety tips. The service lists a telephone number for more information. Armed with such data, a motorist can make choices on how to avoid delays due to road construction.
Data and research on transportation are shared. Caltrans worked with a private firm in an experimental program to provide traffic counts by freeway entrance/exit for Southern California. Caltrans also offers limited use of agency-developed software. The University of Nevada at Las Vegas has a home page describing the work of its Transportation Research Center. Users call up summary information of research projects underway at the University of California at Berkeley, whose research work, distributed via the California State Government Network, includes execu tive summaries of projects and results.
How are they used with other techniques?
On-line services supplement an agency’s conventional outreach techniques such as preparing public information materials and contacting individuals. (See Public Information Materials.) They should not become the public’s only means of participating. The San Francisco County Transportation Authority discovered that on-line users were commenting on the Authority’s corridor transportation plans via the Internet’s regional transportation bulletin board. On-line services are evolving into a primary method of communication, but they do not preclude or substitute for techniques such as public meetings, personal interaction, and mailings.
Electronic bulletin boards promote and facilitate information exchange. The New York Metropolitan Transportation Council (NYMTC) has established an electronic bulletin board system with message boards to explain its work, its methods, and its specific products and services. The Council’s electronic menu offers messages about the region’s transportation improvement plan, long-range plan, and potential use of congestion management in developing its travel models. NYMTC will continue to hold hearings and solicit input in its forecasting and planning efforts through other traditional methods.
What are the drawbacks?
Use of on-line services is limited due to access, expense, and skill requirements. Although usage is growing, on-line services and computers reach only a fraction of the total population. Some people are always suspicious of machines, and some resist using means of communication they consider cold and impersonal. Adjustment to technological change is slow, and some social and economic barriers will persist. Just as there are people who still do not own an automobile,there will always be those without computers and on-line services. Concerns about equity among participants should be kept in mind when choosing this technique.
Participants in on-line services do not represent the entire community. In particular, ethnic groups, minorities, disabled people, the elderly, and other people traditionally underserved by transportation often have limited access to these resources. (See Ethnic, Minority, and Low-income Groups.) As computer use continues to increase in the workplace and on-line services become more common and more available in public places, such limitations may become less pronounced.
On-line services must be used in conjunction with other techniques that allow people to obtain information quickly. They require people to make a commitment to using a computer to obtain information. Users cannot be reached as quickly as with a printed pamphlet, fact sheet, report, or other materials delivered to the door. (See Public Information Materials.)
On-line services cannot replace meetings, which allow participants to interact with one another and focus on key points of discussion. Even with the interaction on-line services provide, they lack the dynamic face-to-face interplay that generates and airs ideas during a meeting or focus group. (See Focus Groups; Small Group Techniques.)
Information overload is a potential problem. As on-line services make communication easy and many people join in, the sheer volume of information available becomes overwhelming. Agencies are unlikely to receive individual comments unless they help people focus on specific issues. Frequently, this involves communicating through traditional public information materials and meetings.
Are on-line services flexible?
The format of a home page or bulletin board is modified and adjusted as needed, while the essential characteristics of the medium remain unchanged. Other specific on-line actions are also changed frequently. The flexibility of the technology itself (e.g., round-the-clock availability, adjustable format or applications) is one of its most attractive features. The NYMTC Transpor tation Information Exchange established 5 bulletin boards and 13 explanatory files, with the express belief that with time and user interaction, more bulletin boards and issue-specific files would be added.
On-line information is changed as often as an agency wishes. It should always carry the date when updated information was entered. The Caltrans home page shows the date of the page’s latest update and includes a listing of the information most recently added to the page, with dates next to each item. Seeing how recently the information was added and how recently the whole page was updated adds credibility and a sense of immediacy. It also makes the on-line service more of a here-and-now resource.
A home page can include information from outside an agency. One service offered on the Caltrans home page is San Francisco Bay Area Transit Information. It is operated as a pubic service of the University of California, supported by student volunteers working to improve campus on-line services.
When are they used most effectively?
On-line services are best used to improve and expand opportunities for communication. King County Metro Transit in Seattle has used them to give the riding public information about Metro’s Rider-Link program. Integrating text, photographs, and video, they give potential riders information about fares, schedules, routes, and connections with other services. With this ser vice, anyone in the Seattle area can get transit information from a desktop computer. In Lexing ton, Kentucky, the Metropolitan Planning Organization -- Urban County Government -- puts its TIP and Americans with Disabilities Act reports on electronic bulletin boards.
Over time on-line services strengthen public involvement programs as a means of communication and information exchange. Their sustained use increases as more people become accus tomed to on-line services and their advantages.
For further information:
Alaska Home Page, http://www/dot.state.ak.us/
Lexington Urban County Government, Division of Planning, (606) 258-3160; E-mail lsfusg.com
Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County (Houston), (713) 739-4000; E-mail webmaster@www.hou-metro.harris.tx.us
New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, (212) 938-3300; bulletin board (212) 938-4371
San Francisco County Transportation Authority, (415) 557-6850; E-mail sfcta@thecity.sfsu.edu/~sfctamel
Texas Employment Commission, Public Information Office, (512) 463-2217
Editor and Publisher, Urban Transportation Monitor, (703) 764-0512; E-mail drathbon@ix.netcom.com
California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), (916) 654-5266; E-mail webadmin@dot.ca.gov
